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N/S rear suspension arm boot deteriorated

Good morning,

Happy Friday all. I'm off to look at a 2003 4.2 SE, an a cursory glance at the last MOT tells me "N/S rear suspension arm boot deteriorated". My immediate question is, how much am I looking at to repair this (so I can negotiate a price discount), if it hasn't already been done?

If it means the driveshaft boot then KwickFit will replace it for £80 from memory - or they do for the front driveshaft boots on other cars I've had. They cut the old one off, remove the driveshaft end from the hub and stretch a new one over the CV joint and reasemble.

Same old same response there. I don't generally advocate Kwikfit either but on a job that only consists of removing a couple of bolts and doing up again a there is little they can get wrong and if they do, you get them to sort it out - you will know within 3 seconds if your driveshaft bolt has not been refitted.

Regarding using social media to gauge if a multinational company with hundreds of garages up and down can do a simple job. It's a well known fact that many more people will complain than leave positive comments.

Not easy without a special tool to stretch the boot over the CV joint. The boot opening is about 1inch across, you have to get it over a 3inch CV joint. You ideally need a compressed air boot spreader/stretcher.

Same old same response there. I don't generally advocate Kwikfit either but on a job that only consists of removing a couple of bolts and doing up again a there is little they can get wrong and if they do, you get them to sort it out - you will know within 3 seconds if your driveshaft bolt has not been refitted.

Regarding using social media to gauge if a multinational company with hundreds of garages up and down can do a simple job. It's a well known fact that many more people will complain than leave positive comments.

Don't like to admit it, but a few years back, against my better judgement, used Kwikfit for two simple jobs - one recharge air con and other supply. fit and balance new tyre. They managed to f*** up both jobs. So I also can talk from personal experience.

To the OP good luck with your new purchase, enjoy - SWMBO still prefers my old X350 to my X351.